Aiming and accurately firing a handheld firearm has long been a worthwhile pursuit and has been a point of pride and a skill of particular importance in many fields of endeavor. Whether military or for the common sportsman, a marksman who can hit a desired target has been recognized as particularly useful for a wide variety of possible objectives.
There are several factors which present difficulties for a marksman when trying to fire at, and hit, particular targets. Many factors which present difficulty are derived internally from the marksman's own person. Some of these factors include the tendency to flinch when pulling the trigger, the correction and compensation for the force required to pull the trigger, the degree of steadiness of the marksman's breathing, etc. These types of factors can often be overcome with practice and particular techniques which can minimize the effects of these factors or train a marksman to eliminate them.
Other personal factors can include the fact that the human body is incapable of achieving absolute stillness. Tremors, swaying, and other such motion cannot be completely eliminated regardless of training. In order to overcome such deficiencies electronic stabilization systems have been developed which help to reduce the effect such movements have on the firearm during aiming and prior to firing. These systems can include gyroscopic-based systems that apply a continuous corrective moment to the firearm and minimize tremors and other micro-movements, which micro-movements can be applied to the firearm by the marksman.
Besides the various internal targeting factors, there are also many external factors which can come into play while aiming and shooting a firearm, as well as that may affect the bullet's trajectory after leaving the barrel of the firearm. These factors can include various environmental factors, such as barometric pressure, altitude, wind speed, wind direction, angle up/down of the target with respect to the firearm, etc. These factors are well known to affect bullet trajectory and various systems have been developed that provide models of bullet trajectory based on these various factors.
Other external targeting factors can include characteristics of the target itself. For instance, the target can be stationary (e.g., as is common in target shooting situations), or the target can be moving (e.g., as is common in hunting and military situations). Obviously, stationary targets are much easier to hit than moving targets. However, some targets can be moving, and even capable of erratic or high speed motion, and therefore can be ever-increasingly difficult to hit. In addition, the target can also be extremely close or extremely far away. Other factors can include target size or acceptable targeting areas of a larger whole.